BeagleBoard.org Blog

Congratulations to the winners of the BeagleBone Black Wireless Maker Faire New York Giveaway!
Boards are entering production now and should ship in November. Winners should expect to be contacted
separately for their shipping address.

Everybody loves music, right?! Here's your chance to change the way music is made and win prizes to boot. Fifteen of the best ideas will get a pile of gear to bring their idea to reality. But don't wait, the deadline for applications is November 30, 2015!

SanCloud is joining the BeagleBoard.org logo licensing family and
enhancing the open hardware BeagleBone Black design you love with more features than you
thought possible! It still has a blistering 1GHz processor and like the BeagleBone Black,
two 46-pin headers, micro HDMI for audio/video output, USB ports, Ethernet and other I/O
features. The SanCloud BeagleBone Enhanced is an ultra-powered embedded computer that
can (still) fit in a mint tin.

“Working with the open community around BeagleBoard.org and their partners is an inspiration,” said Barb Edson, General Manager for Data Platform and Internet of Things, Microsoft. "Everyone in the community of professionals, students and hobbyists innovating around programmable electronics benefits from this collaboration to accelerate IoT prototypes and extend their creations to the world.”

Interested in 3D printing or materials development? We all know by now that BeagleBone Black has incredibly precise machine control capabilities. Now, Autodesk® just did a bunch of us a big favor when it recently opened up its Ember high-resolution and small footprint stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer. Ember is already being used to produce castings for delicate pieces of jewelry and in photopolymer chemistry research. And now Autodesk has taken the next big step to encourage even more innovation and creative 3D printing applications. All of Ember’s hardware electronic design and firmware is now downloadable as open source. The mechanical designs and resin formulations had already been made available.

Makers love customizing their Android devices. And thanks to the BBBAndroid, which puts emphasis on interfacing custom hardware with Android operating systems, users now have a starting point to create their own custom Android-based devices.

We’ve all heard about the trend of 3D printing that’s on the rise and breaking into many different industries, from automotive to fashion, Makers have embraced 3D printing on a whole new level and many have presented their creations to the public. At least that’s what maker Robert Berger did. He demonstrated his 3D printing project, Emmelia, at the Embedded Linux Conference 2014 at the Yocto booth. Berger began the project after purchasing a 3D printer kit.

Google starts accepting applications for potential mentoring organizations on today, February 9th. BeagleBoard.org is going to send in an application. Your help is needed to make that application as strong as it can be!

As many of you might have heard, Raspberry Pi launched their next board, the Raspberry Pi 2. There have been noticeable differences in the primary processor performance from the original Pi to Pi 2. This has cause a lot of people to revisit the question of how the BeagleBone Black compares to Raspberry Pi.

With browsers and rich applications available to us everywhere, desires for information and control are growing astronomically. Entrepreneurial, design and cross-discipline engineering skills are all required to launch a successful connected device. Thankfully, Brian DeLacey with other technology enthusiasts around Cambridge and Boston are exploring what it takes to educate individuals and teams on the required skills in the most expedient ways possible. I was fortunate to be a guest speaker at an IoT event he hosted at MIT and to participate in his week long Independent Activities Period (IAP) class, supporting use of BeagleBone Black.

2014 has been an amazing year for BeagleBoard.org and BeagleBone Black, the most successful open hardware computer ever invented. I know what you are thinking; “Jason, didn't that board from the UK outsell BeagleBone Black?” Sure, but that board isn't open hardware: there aren't open source layout files or open source editable schematics and the components in the bill of materials aren't readily available. With boards from BeagleBoard.org, anyone can make them, and if they make enough of them, they can be made at a similar or even lower price point. That's only part of the beauty of open hardware.

It’s amazing what you can create when you pair a few spare parts lying
around and an inventive imagination. In this instance, these ingredients
gave birth to BeagleBot – a small test robot for localization algorithms!

Picture this: You’re lying in bed, exhausted from a long day of
work; your eyelids are heavy, but you’re devoted to finishing the
last page of your favorite novel. You conclude the last page, set
the book down on your nightstand, get in the perfect sleeping position
and then regrettably realize that your bedroom lamp is still on.
With a sigh, you get out of your cozy bed and turn off the light,
but not after aggressively stubbing your toe on your nightstand on
the way back to bed.

Pantelis Antoniou originated device tree overlay support for the purpose of enabling dynamic hardware configuration under Linux on devices like BeagleBone that use device tree for hardware configuration. Device tree was introduced to Linux for the purpose of putting the description of hardware into data structures, rather than building it up programmatically, greatly reducing the amount of code required to be maintained within the Linux kernel sources. Until now, the device tree data structure was only processed at boot time and that simply can't work for devices that might change hardware configurations after boot. While many BeagleBone capes can be probed by the bootloader, a common use-case is hardware that is reconfigurable. The most obvious example is a cape with an FPGA on it.

You don’t have to be a child to play with remote-controlled cars.
The BeagleROV is an exciting toy that would bring any adult Maker
back to the good ole’ days – except this robot packs a bit more punch
than the classic Nascar minis. Powered by the TI Sitara AM335x processor-based
BeagleBone Black, the BeagleROV has a multitude of capabilities
that are all controlled remotely via the robot’s web application.

Standing in line for coffee, a commercial break, boiling water – all things that only take a matter of minutes. What if building circuit boards were that easy and time efficient? At New York startup company BotFactory, devices print and assemble electronic circuit boards from your desktop in a matter of minutes. Creating electronic devices has never been easier.

Computer numerical control (CNC) milling machines
have been around for decades. Most are industrial-sized,
and are used create everything from the shaped trim on
a house to the mechanical components of a space shuttle.
Over the last decade, a large do-it-yourself community has
emerged giving a new market to CNC milling machines as personal,
rather than solely industrial applications.

Commuting in a big city is a tough task, especially when public transit and traffic
congestion make the process even more difficult. For someone who is blind, finding
your way around the city on public transportation in these conditions can seem daunting,
or nearly impossible. Marcelo Gutierrez recognized this issue and wanted to do something
about it.

Ringing a bell, throwing some cash, snapping your fingers and maybe even showing a
little extra cleavage have all been used to flag down bartenders. But Sean Carney,
creator of Barbot, can catch the attention of his bartender with a quick click of
the mouse and a remote Internet connection.

I just got back from a meetup of Machinekit developers
hosted by Tormach, a maker of professional CNC machines.
There I got a glimpse into the future of personal CNC machines and 3D printers. Building on the long successful LinuxCNC project, Machinekit has added support for additional platforms, including BeagleBone Black, and additional real-time Linux strategies, including Xenomai and stepper motor driving using the on-board PRU microcontrollers.

Just a couple of weeks in, we already have our first image update. It
doesn't include any major changes, but it should be noted that the LEDs
will
now turn OFF
at the completion of the execution of the eMMC flasher as the board will
be shutdown. This avoids any cruft to build up on the uSD card that might
cause subsequent uses of that uSD card to flash other boards to be slowed
down as the journaling file system is explored. This isn't likely something
you need to think about if it sounds confusing----just realize the LEDs
will be OFF instead of ON at the end of the flashing operation.

Arduino Tre is the next-generation Arduino developed in
partnership with BeagleBoard.org featuring Arduino ease-of-use
and the high-performance, low-power Linux capabilities of
BeagleBone. Read their announcement
here.

The SoundsCape adds a codec to the McASP bus for Line In, Line Out, and Headset (microphone in + headphone out). It also adds an HCI Bluetooth 4.0 Module for Bluetooth Audio (A2DP), BT Hands free (HFP), or SPP, with all Bluetooth profiles are supported by the cape.

We are getting great interest from students this year for Google Summer of Code, but we could use a bit of help from our community getting a great feedback on their proposals. I encourage you to engage with them on #beagle-gsoc and the beagleboard-gsoc mailing list even if you don't plan to be a mentor, simply to make the proposals better for the community.

BeagleBoard.org has once again been selected as a mentoring organization
for Google Summer of Code! This means it is time for students and potential
mentors to check out
the information on the
program home page
to find out about the program in general and discover the other
organizations participating in mentorship this year. Once familiar with the
program, you should check out the ideas pages for various organizations,
including the BeagleBoard.org
ideas page.

As working professionals, Michael Jones, Jonathan Piat and their
team at Valent F(x) know that interfacing with FPGA boards can be a
clunky and cumbersome process. With these complexities of electronic
design in mind, they strove to devise a more user-friendly,
plug-and-play method to, as Michael put it, “make even students and
hobbyists smile.”

Imagine having the ability to personalize your Christmas tree
lights. When the holiday is approaching and it’s time for your
family tradition of picking a tree, baking cookies, and putting on
the garland, lights, ornaments, and big star on top, it seems like
there is always something wrong with the lights! A few bulbs have
gone out, some are missing, and you find yourself scrambling around
trying to find replacements to put in to make sure your tree still
shines bright next holiday season.

Inspiration is not an easy thing to come by, and no one can predict
when it will strike. The light bulb suddenly flashes on overhead,
and the gears inside your brain start to turn. The excitement of
the “Ah hah!” moment is great, but often short lived when the
realization of the logistics come into play.

As Alex Neskin slipped out the front door for work, he couldn’t
help but feel the heartache as he heard the barks and cries from
his Chihuahua, Rocky. It was the same routine every day. He would
try to sneak out the door attempting to be unnoticed by Rocky, but
every time the door would shut, the barking and crying would start.
The separation anxiety not only took a toll on him and Rocky, but
even the neighbors when they had to deal with the unnerving sound
of a barking dog. This separation anxiety is what led Alex to
create Petcube.

A quick survey of some BeagleBoard.org-based projects on Kickstarter that launched in 2013 provides some interesting lessons that are perhaps more intuitive than decisive. From 3D printers, home automation, robotic controllers, processing elements and accessories, designs using Beagle are starting to show up all over Kickstarter. Most of them are being successful, but not every project idea is a recipe for success. Perhaps the most critical lesson is to fully engage a developer community if you want your project to succeed.

Here we are, 2014. Expect a big year for Beagle! Unfortunately, I have to
start out with an apology.
LinuxGizmos.com
recently hopped on the news that over 100,000 BeagleBone Blacks have now
been sold. When they contacted me to confirm, I blundered a bit by repeating
and confirming what I thought was a fairly broadly shared rumor---that we
are looking to soon shift the Linux distribution that ships in the flash of
the boards from Angstrom to Debian. The blunder wasn't the confirming of the
news, but rather not doing a good job at communicating to the community
about this move better ahead of time. It didn't help that I was taking off
for vacation where my Internet access is spotty at best. So, I owe you all
a big apology, but I hope you are still excited about the news.

If you went to Maker Faire New York this year, you could not have
missed the Orbital Rendersphere. This “Big Giant Spinning Limb
Slicer,” as the Hoboken MakerBar
team affectionately calls it, displays images and videos on a
four-foot diameter spherical surface using persistence of vision
(POV) spinning at 450 RPM. It had a constant crowd surrounding it
and earned five ribbons at the faire: four Editor’s Choice ribbons
and one Educator’s Choice ribbon.

Addie Wagenknecht and Stefan Hachenberger, co-founders of NORDT
Labs, have many secret talents. Addie can bake some mean chocolate
chip cookies at 15,000+ feet in high winds on a mountain, and she
can open a beer bottle with just about anything (like a lighter)
thanks to Becky Stern.
Stefan, on the other hand, makes the best
kiserschmann in Austria, according to Addie. But their most
recent project—the Lasersaur—shows their best talent yet.

Don't let the fun you had playing childhood video games disappear and decay as
forgotten memories — give them an extra life! Help make sure that generations
to come will still be able to run the same software you run today, including
the video games of yesterday. Open source enables us to preserve the
information to run those games, passing them on to the next generation. In
fact, there's already a huge movement of people saving their old games using
"retro-gaming systems," but not all of them are fully open source. Because the
BeagleBone Black not only runs open source software, but is also open source
hardware, taking the time to bring it your games your games up on
BeagleBone Black means you'll be able to bring those games with you into the
future.

You’ve heard of monkeys and apes being sent to space, but did you
know a Beagle is also being launched into the ether? In 2014, Sam
Sipe and his team at the U.S. Naval Academy are launching a
BeagleBoard-xM into space as part of their Unix space server.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. My family usually runs
a turkey trot together, makes and eats great food, and spends the
evening playing board games. The one down side of Thanksgiving is
all of those dirty dishes! Sometimes I think it takes more time to
clean up than we even spend eating turkey dinner. The result? The
family falls asleep on the floor (thanks tryptophan!) before all of
the dishes are cleaned up, leaving a mess in the kitchen sink.

Planning to buy a sprinkler timer for your loved ones this holiday
season? Have no fear, OpenSprinkler is here! Developed by Ray Wang
at Rayshobby LLC, OpenSprinkler Beagle—nicknamed OSBo—was released
last week. It is an open-source sprinkler/irrigation extension
board for the Sitara-processor-based BeagleBone Black. The board
helps you easily develop BeagleBone Black into a low-cost,
web-connected smart sprinkler controller. It comes with a
full-featured sprinkler scheduling program, uses online weather
data to help regulate water time, and enables users to remotely
change setting and programs while away from home. It works with the
standard 24VAC sprinkler valves commonly found in household
watering and irrigation systems and allows for an unlimited number
of water zones to be individually controlled. Because it’s open
source, it offers a lot of flexibility in features and
functionality. Users are encouraged to hack the hardware and/or
software (written in Python, which is easy to learn).

Whether you want to explore the seas for science and education,
“snorkel” for fish and coral without getting wet, or hunt for
buried treasure in unexplored seas, OpenROV is something you need
to check out!

Open-source technology is all about getting the power of technology
into the hands of everyone. That’s why we at BeagleBoard.org really
like the idea of GrowCubes —stackable, modular farming environments
that use mobile technology and aeroponics to grow delicious,
organic produce indoors—using 90% less water. Developed by a team
at NYC Resistor (NYCR), GrowCubes democratize agriculture by placing
the power to grow back into the hands of individuals and
communities. “It’s based on the radical idea that food should be
healthy, tasty and accessible to all,” said Chris Beauvois, founder
of GrowCubes. This idea of open-source agriculture has implications
not only for culinary culture, but for some of the urgent public
health issues facing us today.

The holidays are around the corner, and with them come the fun and
excitement of big family gatherings. However, a lot of families are
spread across the country and not able to get together for the
holidays. That’s why Charles Hamilton developed GrannyCam, a safe,
durable videophone that his kids can use to stay in touch with their
grandparents, not only during the holiday season but throughout the
year. In September, the device received great response and an
Editor’s Choice Blue Ribbon from Make Magazine at Maker Faire New
York.

What’s your perfect vacation? Mine involves sitting out by the pool
under the sun as people deliver me ice-cold drinks. Andy Gikling
seems to have a similar dream, and he figured out a way to live the
good life every weekend—by developing the BBot robot!

When you think of Pyramids in the middle of the desert, you think of
Egypt—not Nevada. The Disorient Pyramid, which was on display at
Burning Man 2013 this year in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, is
changing all that.

Phil Polstra had a problem. He had a vision for a portable
penetration testing (pentesting) and forensics device, but he didn’t
have the technology he would need to do it. One fateful day at Maker
Faire Detroit, Polstra found himself right next to Jason Kridner,
who was showing off the (then) new BeagleBoard-xM. “This was my
first introduction to the Beagles. I was very impressed with the xM
and thought I might use them in some future project,” said Polstra.

Two open hardware pioneers have combined forces to bring the famously
easy-to-use experience of Arduino to a high-performance
ARM®-based Linux computer and prototyping platform derived from
the open hardware designs of BeagleBoard.org and Arduino Leonardo. As an open
hardware project, BeagleBoard.org's collaboration with Arduino helps to advance
accessible technology for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in
creating interactive objects or environments everywhere.

Here’s something we are sure you will ‘Like.’ While at Maker
Faire Bay Area this year, we gave away a few BeagleBone Black
open-source computers to some lucky faire attendees. We heard back
from one of the winners, Christopher Berg, about a creative but
functional project he’s created on the board over the past few
months that would make Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg quite
proud.

There wasn't enough time to really discover all of the BeagleBone Black projects
at World Maker Faire in New York. I did post some quick pictures on
Google+,
but I barely had time to breathe at the Faire!

Embedded Computing Design magazine recently
announced its
2013 Top Embedded Innovator awards.
BeagleBone Black was announced as a winner in the Top Products Silicon
category. Hardly surprising, given the waves BeagleBoard.org has
been making in the embedded industry for the
last five years.

It has been a busy week for BeagleBoard.org, which has now been around for five years!
Drew Fustini of
Element14 was nice enough to bring cake to the Southeast Michigan Friends of
Boris (the Beagle) meet-up. A notable point of discussion was the
fact that BeagleBoard.org got its name from Gerald's dog Jake, but yet the
cartoon mascot for BeagleBoard.org was named 'Boris' by Philip who paid to get
the logo created. Seems like it is the little things that give character
to a community.

BeagleBoard.org is just about to kick-off coding on our second time as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code. This is an amazing program that pays students for writing open source software over Summer. Seven (7) students will be participating in projects that advance the state of open source software for Beagle users and will earn them each US$5,000 if they are successful. Twenty-three (23) qualified mentors from the BeagleBoard.org community have volunteered to help the students reach their goals.